Upcoming Events
Annual SAE Chicago Section Board Yearly Review
When: Tuesday, June 20, 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
What: Chicago Section Board meeting to be held in person and online. Please contact an officer for more details.
SAE COMVEC Powertrain Defense Dinner and Tech Presentation
When: Monday, September 18, 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm
What: Before COMVEC officially kicks off, Navistar will be hosting the COMVEC Powertrain Defense Committee, local SAE Chicago Section Members, visiting SAE Indiana Section members, local student reps, and more. Stay tuned for more information.
SAE COMVEC
When: September 19-21
What: COMVEC 2023 is setting its sights on the next frontier for innovation: sustainability. As the only forum that addresses vehicles and equipment spanning the on-highway, off-highway, agricultural, construction, industrial, military, and mining sectors, you don’t want to miss this event. Discover emerging trends and technologies, engage with engineering and technical experts focused on meeting the demands of the future, and grow your professional network.
Past Events

Enabling the Electrification of Mobile Equipment
April 2023
Parker hosted SAE Chicago for an evening of motion and control system overviews, a technical presentation on mobile equipment electrification, and food and networking with SAE Chicago members and Parker Hannifin associates.

Chicago Auto Show
February 2023
With a special thanks to CATA (Chicago Automobile Trade Association) for providing the tickets, we explored the Chicago Auto Show during their Social Media Day. We had a special presentation at the VW booth with Mark Gillies, Director of PR & Reputation at VW.

Elite Novemberfest with IEEE
November 2022
Celebrate a return to in-person technical meetings! Join us at Elite with IEEE EMC Chicago chapter! Members & guests come together for an evening of conversation and networking. Good food, refreshments, learning, and more! Come re-engage with your technical community. Stan Dolecki, a Sr EMC Engineer from Elite, will be presenting on Electric Vehicle EMC Testing. The testing methods will be described with emphasis on the unique requirement for vehicle EMC testing on a chassis dynamometer.

Vehicle Accident Analysis and Reconstruction Methods
May 2022
This webinar introduces Vehicle Accident Analysis and Reconstruction Methods and updates to the latest third edition authored by Dr. Matthew Brach, Dr. Raymond M. Brach, Dr. James Mason. Accidents that cannot be reconstructed using the methods in this book are rare. Additionally, this talk will address a couple areas within the field of vehicle accident reconstruction including low speed impact analysis methods and engineers working in litigation consulting. This presentation will be co-presented by Dr. Matthew Brach and Mr. Noel Manuel, both working for Engineering Systems Inc. (ESi) in Aurora, Illinois.

Introduction to Machine Learning with SmartUQ
February 2022
This webinar introduced Machine Learning (ML) and Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) methods, benefits, and tools with a focus on their use in solving automotive engineering challenges. Gavin Jones, Principal Application Engineer at SmartUQ, discussed basic ML and UQ methods such as Gaussian processes, sensitivity analysis, uncertainty propagation, and statistical calibration. Presented jointly with IEEE VTS.

Guardhat Technologies: Connected Worker Tech Removing Friction Between Safety and Success
November 2021
The automotive industry has long led the way in process innovation on the factory floor, but improvement in safety metrics are stalling across industries. Hear from Rakesh Panda, VP of solutions and services at Guardhat on new connected worker technologies that are moving safety up the hierarchy of control to reduce recordables and injuries, while also improving collaboration and business outcomes. This discussion will cover IIoT devices and infrastructure, worker-centric design, network and privacy considerations, and case studies on COVID-19, collision avoidance, worker condition monitoring and remote expert.

Caterpillar Autonomous Mining Solutions
February 2021
Autonomy is about automating every movement, pulling out waste, making it more repeatable, like a factory. Our customers are seeing a step change in safety with autonomy and upwards of 30% improvement in productivity. We’ll talk about how our customers have been able to deliver those results using Caterpillar Command for Hauling. We will explore the history of Caterpillar autonomy journey, highlight demonstrated results from our customers and talk about the mine of the future where we believe that someday the complete mining process could be automated — from drilling and digging, to loading, hauling, processing and transporting mined materials. We envision an operation where most of the equipment could be autonomous, which will result in the safest, most efficient mine sites in the world.

SAE Chicago Student Welcome Event
October 2020
Find out more about SAE Student membership and the unique benefits of the Chicago Section. Also, Networking with Engineering Professionals and Students, Collegiate Design Series, Internships and Entry Level Opportunities presented by: Navistar, Parker Hannifin, Collins Aerospace, ESi

Webinar – Know the Unknowns: Addressing Disturbances and Uncertainties in Connected and Autonomous Vehicles
August 2020
This talk will present his recent work in this area, including:
1) Models and methods for analyzing system safety and applying adaptation strategies under bounded disturbances such as timing violations and soft errors,
2) Algorithms and tools for formally verifying the safety of neural network controlled systems, and
3) A cross-layer framework for the modeling, simulation, synthesis and verification of connected vehicle applications, with the consideration of communication disturbances
If you missed it please find a recording here: Webinar Recording

Parker LORD: Selecting Adhesives for Lightweight Assembly and Electric Vehicle Battery Packs
May 2020
Adhesives for Joining Mix Material Assemblies
What to Look for with Customized Solutions
Adhesive Chemistries

SAE YP Happy Hour
February 2020
Please join us at Granite City for appetizers, drinks, and Young Professional Networking with SAE and Navistar

Blackdog Speed Shop
January 2020
Blackdog Speed Shop is the most successful team in Pirelli World Challenge SRO/GT4 competition in the series. It has claimed 29 race victories, two Team Championships and four Driver Championships to date. Founded in 2002, Blackdog Racing began competing Chevrolet Corvettes simultaneously in SCCA T1 and World Challenge. The team next ran Camaros very successfully for General Motors for six years. In 2019, Blackdog moved to McLaren, fielding two new McLaren 570S GT4’s, driven by McLaren official Factory Driver Michael Cooper and Blackdog team principal Tony Gaples. In its first year running for McLaren, the team helped secure its third Manufacturer’s title in the last six years.

2023 Student CDS Competition
April 2023
Local SAE Chicago CDS Teams (Collegiate Design Series) presented about their current year progress on their designs and vehicles. We’re hoping to have representation from Northwestern, NIU, UIC, IIT, Bradley, and more.

Winzeler Gear Plant Tour
December 2022
Winzeler Gear is known internationally as one of the premier designers and manufacturers of precision molded plastic gears. Our tour will take us through Winzeler’s highly automated gear molding facility with the capacity to produce 150 million gears annually. It will also include a technical discussion of gearing topics lead by the expert team from Winzeler.

Collins Aerospace – Ram Air Turbine Wind Tunnel
October 2022
Join us for a technical presentation on the Collins Aerospace Ram Air Turbine (RAT) wind tunnel from Bob Myers from Collins. Bob is the Technical Lead for the RAT Wind Tunnel Project. With fully automated, state-of-the-art technology and enhanced quality via real-time data analytics, the new wind tunnel will streamline the Ram Air Turbine testing and certification process for Collins’ customers. Designed to serve as the small but mighty heart of an aircraft’s emergency power system, Collins’ Ram Air Turbine deploys from the wing or fuselage if a plane loses power in flight. By rotating its small turbine, the system extracts sufficient power from the airstream to allow the pilot to land the aircraft.

SAE Fellow Dr. Michael Wang on Argonne National Lab’s GREET Model
March 2022
SAE Fellow Dr. Michael Wang of Argonne National Laboratory explores the GREET (Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies) Model. The GREET model is a one-of-a-kind analytical tool that simulates the energy use and emissions output of various vehicle and fuel combinations. To get a complete picture of the energy and environmental impacts of a technology, it is important to consider the full life cycle – from well to wheels for fuels and from raw material mining to vehicle disposal for automobiles. As previously discussed in our ClearFlame and Ethanol events, the GREET model is the industry standard for energy life cycle analysis for fuels and materials.

Iowa Corn Growers Association: Ethanol is the Fuel of the Future
January 2022
Ethanol is America’s renewable fuel. It is reliable, clean, homegrown, affordable, and readily available. Heavy truck manufactures are also looking into technologies to reduce carbon emissions including electrification, renewable CNG and hydrogen. What does this mean for the future of ethanol? Join SAE Chicago and our special guests Kelly Nieuwenhuis and Grant Menke of the ICGA as we address the topic.

ClearFlame Engine Technologies
March 2021
ClearFlame’s CTO Dr. Julie Blumreiter spoke about their potentially groundbreaking heavy duty engine technology, which retains the high torque and fuel efficiency we’ve come to expect while using 100% decarbonized fuels, and without the need for DPF or SCR.

SAE Chicago Virtual Design Competition
February 2021
SAE Chicagoland Student Sections presented on their current SAE International Collegiate Design Series (CDS) competition vehicles. IIT, UIC, NIU, and Bradley University participants shared their progress.

Turntide Technologies: Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM)
January 2021
Piyush Desai, VP Motor Design at Turntide Technologies presented the Past, Present, and Future of the Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM).

Virtual Auto Show
September 2020
To round out the summer we’d like to have a Virtual Auto Show featuring you! Due to the current COVID-19 precautions we don’t know when our next in-person meeting will be but thought this would be a great idea to connect with our local members. We need your help to fill our show with old, new, fun, or quirky cars. Everyone is welcome! I’m guessing some of you will be giving your ride a wash and wax this Labor Day weekend so make sure to take some glamour shots after you’re done and send them in.

Advances in Automotive Performance Verification Testing for 5G and EMC Applications
June 2020
In the rapidly evolving industry of autonomous, electric and hybrid vehicles, the ability to successfully provide vehicle level antenna pattern measurements as well as EMC measurements to verify the performance of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) will be key to the future of this market and address public safety concerns. The automotive trends in wireless capabilities for high data streaming, incident detection warning, anti-collision/adaptive cruise control radar, wireless entry and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle-to-cloud (V2C) communication are just a few of the features impacting the functionality of today’s modern vehicles. This presentation details the challenges presented by these market demands and how innovative testing solutions help drive the technologies forward to real-life applications.

Chicago Auto Show Day
February 2020
This year SAE Milwaukee and Chicago Sections will again be teaming up with the Chicago Area Trade Association (CATA) for access to the 2020 Chicago Auto Show. CATA is sponsoring our event this year and is giving our group exclusive access to the show on the Second Media Day before the show opens to the General Public. With CATA’s support, access on media day means no crowds or lines to see the exhibits and demonstrations! An engineer from Navistar will start off the day showing off their new joint venture with GM at the Chevrolet booth.

Hendrickson International: Test Lab Tour & Company Overview
December 2019
Hendrickson is a leading global manufacturer and supplier of medium- and heavy-duty mechanical, elastomeric and air suspensions; integrated and non-integrated axle and brake systems; parabolic and multi-leaf springs; stabilizers; and bumpers and trim components to the global commercial transportation industry. Every day around the world, millions of Hendrickson suspensions carry countless loads of freight and raw material both on- and off-highway.